Apple launches iPhone change that will hit snatching networks worth millions

Stolen mobiles will essentially become unusable bricks after Apple agreed to help deter phone snatching.

The technology giant has made a deal with the Metropolitan Police, ensuring phones cannot be reactivated once they are marked as stolen.

Samsung and Google have also agreed to make changes to tackle the issue.

Device identifiers, such as the International Mobile Equipment Identity Number, will be shared between bodies.

This can not only track phones and switch them off, but reveal when they reappear in circulation.

The agreement will be able to disrupt entire criminal networks and business model worth millions, built entirely around snatching phones out of the hands of unsuspecting Londoners.

Are we winning in the fight against phone snatchers?

Police check CCTV and drone footage to track down phone snatchers (Picture: Met Police)

Officers recently launched Operation Reckoning, which saw 10-days of arrests and enforcement against phone snatching gangs in London,.

Footage shows raids against shops accused of selling stolen phones and arresting thieves with ‘interceptors’.

New technology has aided officer’s efforts. Drones are able to track the thieves as police chase using their own Sur-On e-bikes, which is much quicker and easier compared to following in car or on foot.

Operation Reckoning is still ongoing, but other periods of enforcement have proven successful.

In February, a four-week crackdown on phone theft saw officers make 248 arrests and recover 770 stolen devices. A further 122 people were arrested for other offences as part of the wider operation.

A woman has her phone snatched in London (Picture: Met Police)

In April, the Met seized a further 1,000 suspected stolen mobile phones during a raid on a shop in north-west London. Four men were arrested.

That same month, three phone thieves pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods in an £180 million criminal operation.

Amir Muhammad Khadikhel, Ismat Miakhel and Mansoor Mohammed were responsible for trafficking up to 40,000 devices – around 40% of all stolen phones in London – to China between 2024 and 2025.

Police have raided shops suspected of selling stolen phones (Picture: Met Police) Stolen phones uncovered in a London shop (Picture: Met Police)

‘We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward’

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has repeatedly called on companies to do more to deter phone snatching, giving them an ultimatum to step up or they will petition for the law to change.

He said: ‘For the first time, we are routinely sharing intelligence on stolen devices, building a joint picture of how these phones move and whether they reappear in circulation.

‘That partnership is already making a difference. If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them.

The Met arrest a suspected phone snatcher (Picture: Met Police)

‘We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward.’

Sir Mark has also written to the Home Office asking for new laws which will ensure there are ‘minimum technical standards’ to make sure every mobile, once reported as stolen, is unusable.

Kate Adams, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Apple, said: ‘Keeping our users, their devices, and their data safe is at the heart of what we do.

‘That includes building industry-leading security features that significantly reduce the motivation for criminals to target people in the first place.’

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ‘The Commissioner and I have been crystal clear that mobile phone crime cannot be solved by policing alone.

‘Decisive and coordinated action from the mobile phone industry is long overdue to prevent stolen phones being used, sold and repurposed both here and across the globe.

‘I’ve seen for myself how Google and Samsung have introduced some advanced security features and I welcome Apple and the Met reaching an agreement to protect mobile phone users, and make stolen phones unusable.’

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